


I Will Be Your Accident If You Will Be My Ambulance

by annemari



Category: Merlin (BBC) RPF
Genre: Banter, First Kiss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 21:31:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annemari/pseuds/annemari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"They find themselves a theme song. Bradley blasts it wherever they go and Colin sucks at remembering the name of the singer, which inevitably cracks Bradley up.</p><p>By the end, he's pretending to forget it just so he can hear Bradley's laugh."</p><p>So, Colin might just fancy Bradley. Just a bit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Will Be Your Accident If You Will Be My Ambulance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [iphianassa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/iphianassa/gifts).



> Title from TV on the Radio's _Ambulance_.
> 
> Thanks so much to **summerstorm**, for encouraging and betaing, this wouldn't have happened without her.

"So what say you," Bradley says, smirking, "to changing all the room keys of the cast and crew?"

It's raining, they don't have any shooting scheduled for today and Bradley's clearly bored. He walks into the room, right past Colin, and plops down on Colin's bed. Colin stays near the door and tries really hard not to think about the implications of Bradley lying on his bed. Ever since he had sort of an epiphany about how his feelings for Bradley are really more _feelings_ than anything else, things have been a bit complicated, and Colin's been trying to not _actually_ make them complicated for anyone but himself.

"I think that would be incredibly complicated and time-consuming to pull off, plus the pay-off wouldn't be even worth it."

Bradley just stretches out and pats the bed, motioning for Colin to join him.

"When has it ever been about the pay-off?" he asks, reaching for Colin's pillow.

"Um, that time Angel got so mad her face went all purple was pretty awesome. At least at first."

Bradley just laughs, his eyelids drooping. He doesn't move, just pats the bed again, and Colin closes the distance between himself and the bed and lies down next to Bradley. Thankfully there's more than enough room for both of them, so they don't have to actually be touching.

"We're not gonna go with the first prank you come up with just because your need for instant gratification is greater than your willingness to make an effort or think of anything else," he says, closing his eyes as well. Yesterday was long and Colin has bruises on his back from the stunts they did. Plus, he hasn't been sleeping well lately. It'd be nice to get some rest. He knows Bradley must be tired, too. They didn't get back to the hotel until midnight, but you can actually never tell with Bradley whether he's so tired that he's bored, so bored that he's tired or so tired and bored that he's crossing over to active and actually wants to do something. Colin hopes it's either the first or second, this time, and he doesn't have to worry about Bradley going through with the ridiculous idea he's come up with.

He opens his eyes and glances over to Bradley when he hears a snore. Ah, crisis averted.

Colin's sure it's gonna be impossible for him to relax with Bradley this close to him, but he's out in a matter of seconds as well.

When he wakes up, the rain has stopped, and it's dark in the room. Bradley's still next to him, curled up on his side, and Colin realises that he's completely, utterly fucked.

\---

They find themselves a theme song. Bradley blasts it wherever they go and Colin sucks at remembering the name of the singer, which inevitably cracks Bradley up.

By the end, he's pretending to forget it just so he can hear Bradley's laugh.

\---

The day they get the script for the finale, Bradley turns up on Colin's doorstep to run lines together. The episode promises to be pretty amazing - there's a dragon and some pretty powerful emotional stuff.

About halfway through, Bradley stops and asks, "Don't you hate how they're not honest with each other?"

Colin doesn't meet Bradley's eyes, just mumbles, "Yeah". He clears his throat. "Maybe next season?" he says, finally looking at Bradley and trying for a smile.

Bradley just snorts, but doesn't say anything. They go back to the script.

That same night, Colin lies in bed, listening to the wind howling around the hotel, unable to sleep.

\---

The final day of shooting sneaks up on them and Colin wakes up to incessant pounding. When he finally gets out of bed, Bradley's two seconds away from taking the door down.

"We don't have a prank!" he shouts at Colin, clearly panicked.

Colin just rolls his eyes, which makes Bradley hit him on the chest, which in turn makes Colin laugh, and if the noise sounds a bit nervous to his own ears, he doesn't care.

It's a hot day in northern France, so they end up getting water pistols and hoping for the best. Colin insists that they come up with a strategy, but Bradley wants to just plow in there and rely on the element of surprise. They compromise on waiting till after shooting to make their move, since that might, possibly, make everyone think that they haven't planned anything, plus it wouldn't get in the way of filming.

The day grows hotter by the minute, temperatures rising over thirty degrees, and the crew decide to take a longer break.

Bradley pulls Colin away by the arm, they grab their water pistols and ambush Katie and Angel by the canteen.

It turns out that Angel has really good aim and in the end, all four of them are soaking wet, Bradley more than anyone.

"How'd you know we were gonna use water pistols?" Bradley asks, shaking his head and trying to get the water out of his ears.

"Magic, Bradley. All thanks to magic," Katie says as she and Angel walk past them, heading towards their trailer to dry themselves off.

Bradley just frowns and keeps rubbing his hand through his hair. Colin tries not to look at the way Bradley's chest heaves under his wet, now see-through shirt.

"Are you checking me out?" Bradley asks, raising his eyebrows.

Colin coughs and raises his eyes to meet Bradley's. Right. He can handle this. It doesn't take much to distract Bradley, you just have to make sure that he doesn't get too far into the thought he's just come up with.

"Yes, Bradley," he says. "I'm checking you out." Deadpan, good. Works better than rolling your eyes.

It actually seems to be enough. Bradley just laughs, delighted, and pats Colin on the shoulder, before heading to the trailers.

\---

The same evening, Bradley wants to go out, take a walk around the village they have to say goodbye to, again, in a few days. It'd be a completely sensible wish if it weren't for the fact that the hot day seems set on culminating in a fast-approaching thunderstorm, and it's not like they don't have time to do that tomorrow, when they might actually be able to see something.

"You don't have to come," Bradley says, heading towards his hotel room. Which is a completely ridiculous thing to say, of course Colin is coming. It's kind of inevitable, it's really like he has no choice in the matter, like there's not a question about it - if Bradley wants to go out for a walk when it's clearly threatening to rain, Colin will go with him. Even if there weren't this whole thing about Colin probably, apparently, being in love with Bradley, they'd still be friends and they'd stick together, going out at night, exploring this little French village, visiting shops and pubs and soaking up the experience of shooting a TV show in a foreign country, in _France_.

But maybe - maybe it would be different. If Colin didn't fancy Bradley, maybe things wouldn't be quite like this. For one thing, his breath wouldn't catch when he notices Bradley stretching before a take, nor would his palms start sweating when Bradley stands too close to him, and that really has to stop or- or just go _somewhere_, because it can't stay this way.

Colin turns up at Bradley's door not five minutes later. "So, are you coming?" he asks with a smile, and Bradley shoves at him, before grabbing his coat and following Colin down the stairs and out the hotel.

They walk around for a little while, visiting their favourite places, some so different in the dim light of the streetlamps. They don't talk much, but it's a comfortable silence.

It keeps getting darker, and Colin can hear the distant rumbling of thunder. It's making him a little anxious; he hates not knowing for sure if the storm is gonna reach them or fade before the night's over.

They're in the park near the hotel when the skies finally open with a crack and rain comes pouring down hard. Colin pulls his hood over his head; the rain's not cold, but he feels he's filled up his getting-wet quota of the day already.

"I think we should be heading back," he shouts over the thunder.

Bradley's covering his head with his jacket, looking around the park. "There must be some place around here we can hide," he says.

"Like where, under the trees? It's a thunder storm, Bradley."

"Fine, fine," Bradley says, waving an arm and trying not to drop his jacket at the same time. The rain seems to be getting even thicker, and Bradley lets go of the jacket with one of his hands and reaches for Colin's forearm.

Colin feels something like electricity shoot through him. For a crazy second, he hopes he didn't just get hit by lightning. He stops in his tracks, and no, it's just a reaction to Bradley's cold hand on his wet skin and that really shouldn't be a big deal, but it is, and Colin can't keep living only in his own head.

Bradley tugs at his arm, trying to get him to move. "Come on, Colin, we're either getting out of here or hiding under a tree, so move your arse."

"No - I mean. Wait."

Bradley turns around and looks at at Colin expectantly, raising his eyebrows. "Yes, Colin? Are you gonna - magic the rain away? Oh, that I'd actually like to see," he muses, smiling to himself. His teeth are absolutely ridiculous. Colin loves them.

"I might be totally screwing this up, but - I hate not being honest? And I wanna be honest now, not next season or years from now," he says, gently twisting his arm from Bradley's grip and grasping his hand instead, stepping closer. Bradley's looking a bit confused, but not more than normally, and that's just another thing that Colin finds so endearing he can't stand it. Then Bradley licks his lips and Colin is _gone_.

The kiss is fast, a clash of teeth, Bradley's lips are wet and cold from the rain, and Colin never wants to stop tasting them. His brain is trying to catch up with him and remind him that this can go horribly wrong any second, but at least he _did_ something, at least he didn't let this, whatever this is, pass by, he took control and now it's up to Bradley.

Colin pulls back a little to catch is breath, and he's actually afraid to meet Bradley's eyes, wow. Then there's a hand under his chin and Bradley's gently tilting his head up. He's not saying anything, just looking at Colin, and Colin locks their gaze, tries to explain, even opens his mouth, but then Bradley smiles - grins, actually - and pulls Colin in for another kiss.

Colin lets out a surprised moan and fists his hand in Bradley's hair. His other hand is holding on to Bradley's hip and they really should continue this indoors, cause the fabric under his fingers is completely soaked, but neither one of them seems all that willing to move. Colin's been waiting too long for this. _Fuck the weather_, he thinks as he pushes Bradley against the nearest tree. Bradley's hands are grasping at Colin's shoulders and they should really talk about this, but as Colin releases Bradley's mouth to trail kisses down his neck, he can hear Bradley laughing, and it's a delighted sound, happy. Colin's pretty sure it's a laugh that means Bradley can't believe this is happening, but in the good way.

His suspicions are confirmed when Bradley mutters, "Oh, god, finally," and meets Colin in another kiss, his hand in Colin's hair.

The thunder stops soon after, but it keeps raining. They head to the hotel when Colin's toes start freezing and Bradley gets hungry. They hold on to each other the whole way back.


End file.
